False movable bottom for bobbin trucks



Sept. 2, 1958 N. w. EUREY 2,850,203

FALSE MOVABLE BOTTOM FOR BOBBIN TRUCKS Filed Jan. 10, 1955 2Sheets-Sheet 1 III!!! IIIIIIII IIIIIIILILIIII 1111/ INVENTOR:

NOAH W- EUREY ATTORNEYS Sept. 2, 1958 N. w. EUREY 2,850,203

' FALSE MOVABLE BOTTOM FOR BOBBIN TRUCKS Filed Jan. 10, 1955 2Sheets-Sheet 2 I'I'II'I'II'I'IiA D We EUREY INVENTOR- BY' ZQJeYwwATTORNEYS 2,850,203 i atented Sept. 2, 1958 dce FALSE MOVABLE BOTTOM FORBOBBIN TRUCKS Noah Eurey, Lincolnton, N. C., assignor, by mesneassignments, to Excel, Inc., Lincolnton, N. C., a cor- :poration ofNorth Carolina Application January 10, 1955, Serial No. 480,675

1 Claim. (Cl. 220-93) This invention relates to hand trucks and moreespecially to a false movable bottom which is adapted to be used in aconventional bobbin truck.

Numerous prior attempts have been made to provide a truck with a falsebottom which is automatically depressed upon a plurality of articlesbeing placed thereon and automatically elevated as the supply ofarticles thereon is used up so as to maintain the level of the articlesin the truck at substantially the top edge of the truck to preventstooping over to reach articles in the bottom, as is done with anordinary truck. Little success has been obtained, however, in providinga truck with a false movable bottom which will not bind or tilt whenweight is unevenly distributed over the bottom and structures seekingthis end employ complicated mechanisms requiring numerous and expensiveparts which have proved impractical to manufacture.

It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide a falsemovable bottom for a hand truck, which bottom will at all times maintainthe top surface of the bobbins or cargo therein at a constant elevationconveniently accessible to an operator, and which bottom will not tiltor bind as it is automatically elevated or depressed regardless of thedistribution of the cargo thereon.

It is another object of this invention to provide a false movable bottomas a self-contained unit which may be manufactured independently of thetruck and which may subsequently be readily installed in an existingtruck without the necessity of employing any type of fastening means,the accessory being satisfactorily mounted in the truck merely byplacing the same on the existing bed of the truck. v

The present'invention maybe readily removed from an existing truck bymerely lifting the same upwardly beyond the top edge of the truck, therebeing no fastening means whatever to disconnect, said false bottom thusbeing adaptable for universal application with all types of existingtrucks.

It is another object of this invention to provide a false bottom of thetype described comprising an article receiving surface or bed and aframe and wherein the bed is so connected to the frame by means ofresilient springs and lazy tongs that movement of one point of the bedwill result in corresponding movement of all other points of the bed,thereby constantly maintaining the bed in a predetermined plane.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objectswill appear as the description proceeds, when taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a plan view of the falsebottom shown in a conventional bobbin truck;

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary longitudinal sectional view takensubstantially along line 22 in Figure 1;

Figure .3 is an enlarged transverse vertical sectional view through thebobbin truck and a portion of the false bottom showing the false bottomin raised position;

Figure 4 is an enlarged longitudinal vertical sectional view takensubstantially along line 44 in Figure 1 and showing the false bottom ina lowered position;

Figure 5 is an inverted plan view of one side of the false bottom takensubstantially along the line 55 in Figure 4.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the numeral 10 broadlydesignates a hand truck of the type which is usually used fortransporting bobbins in the textile industry and which comprisessidewalls 11 and 12 and end Walls 13 and 14 preferably joined togetherat their junctures by arcuate or curved corners. The side walls 11, 12and end walls 13, 14 are mounted upon a base 15 whichmay comprise eithera planar member as shown or an open framework and from which depend aplurality of wheels 16 suitably journaled in brackets 17.

It is with this type of structure that the present invention isparticularly adapted to be associated, and although the simplifiedstructure of the instant false bottom readily lends itself to beingmanufactured as a self-contained unit, it is to be understood that itmay be incorporated into the frame of a truck without departing from thespirit of the invention. In this manner, the expense of a completebottom or base 15 in the truck 10 may be eliminated.

The false bottom mechanism comprises a base or frame formed from a pairof transverse angle bars 20, and 21 adapted to be positioned adjacentrespective end walls 13 and 14 in such a manner that the lower edges ofthe vertical flanges rest on the base or bottom 15 of the hand truck 10.The transverse angle bars 20 and 21 are connected by a pairoftransversely spaced longitudinally extending guide or support rods 22and 22 secured thereto, said rods 22 and 22' serving as supports for alazy tong arrangement broadly indicated at 24.

The lazy tong arrangement 24 comprises two interconnected lazy tongdevices 25 and 25', the lazy tong device 25 being connected to the guideor support rod 22 by a pair of tubular guides 26 and the lazy tongdevice 25 being connected to the guide or support rod 22' by tubularguides 26'. Each of the lazy tong devices 25 and 25 is constructed in anidentical manner and only the device 25 will be described in detail, itbeing understood that like parts of the device 25 will bear likereference characters with the prime notation added.

The lazy tong device 25 comprises a pair of cross arms 30 and 31, thelower ends of which are pivotally connected to the tubular guides 26,and which cross arms 30 and 31 converge upwardly to a juncture at whichpoint they are pivotally connected as by a pivot pin 32. The cross arms30 and 31 diverge upwardly from the pivot pin 32 and their upper endsare pivotally mounted on respective tubular guides 33 which are slidablymounted on an upper guide or support rod 35 opposite ends of which arefixedly secured in the vertical flange of angle brackets 36 and 37. Thehorizontal flanges of the brackets 36 and 37 are secured to the innersurface of a false bottom 40, which false bottom 40 is preferably ofslightly less dimensions than the distance between the respectivesidewalls and end Walls of the truck 10 to provide a clearancetherebetween.

.The cross arms 30 and 31 are further guided and caused to move the sameamount in a scissors motion, that is, when one cross arm 30 or 31 ismoved the other cross arm will have the same amount of movement, bylower and upper links or auxiliary bracing members 42 and 43,respectively.

The auxiliary bracing member 42 is pivotally connected at its ends tothe support rod 22 and the lower medial portion of the cross arm 30 asat 44 and 45,

respectively, and the ends of the upper auxiliary bracing member 43 arepivotally connected as at 46 to the upper medial portion of the crossarm 31 and to the medial portion of the upper guide rod 35 as at 47. Thecross arms 30, 31 and 30', 31 are rigidly tied together and bridged bylower transverse bracing members 50 and 51 and upper transverse bracingmembers 52 and 53, respectively, thereby insuring that the lazy tongdevices and 25 will move in unison and the slightest movement of eitherof said devices will result in corresponding movement by the other.

It is thus seen that a lazy tong arrangement is provided for insuringthat the false bottom 40 will be lowered and raised in a level orhorizontal position regardless of the distribution of weight thereon.One end of the false bottom 40 may not be lowered or raised without theother end being lowered or raised the same amount since the cross arms30, 31 and 31 along with the auxiliary bracing members 42, and 42, 43cause the tubular guides 26 and 26 to be moved the same distance alongthe respective guide rods 22, 22' and 35, as the false bottom iselevated or depressed.

The false bottom 40 is normally urged upwardly by resilient means suchas springs 55 and 56 which extend upwardly from the medial portions ofthe transverse angle bars 20 and 21 to the under surface of the falsebottom 40. Suitable spring clamping brackets 57 connect respective endsof the springs 55 and 56 to the angle bars 20 and 21 and the falsebottom 40. Rollers 60, adapted to engage the curver corners of thebobbin truck 10 are journaled in suitable brackets 61 secured to theunder surface of the false bottom 40 adjacent the corners thereof. Therollers 60 insure that the edges of the false bottom 40 will not engageand drag against the side walls 11, 12 and end walls 13, 14 of the truck10 during elevation or depression of the false bottom 40. i

It is thus seen that the springs 55 and 56 tend to resiliently urge thefalse bottom 40 upwardly when there are no bobbins or other articlesplaced on the false bottom 40 and upon a weight or plurality of bobbinsbeing placed in the bobbin truck 10 upon the false bottom 40, the falsebottom 40 will move downwardly from substantially the position shown inFigure 2 to the position shown in Figure 4. The cross arms 30, 31 and30', 31' will thus be moved the same amount in a scissors motion andinsure that the false bottom 40 will move although specific terms areemployed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and notfor purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined inthe claim.

I claim:

A self-contained, self-leveling, weight adjustive, false floating bottomunit comprising a planar false bottom member, a transverse support barbeneath each end of the false bottom, a pair of horizontally spacedparallel lower guide rods longitudinally extending between and securedto said support bars, a corresponding pair of upper guide rods securedto the under surface of the false bottom extending in parallel relationto said lower guide rods and being disposed above said lower guide rodsin common vertical planes therewith, a pair of cross arm assemblies eachconsisting solely of two arms and a relatively short upper and lowerauxiliary link, the two arms in each assembly being arranged in variableangular relation to each other and intersecting each other adjacenttheir medial portions, the arms in each cross arm assembly beingpivotally interconnected at their juncture and slidably and pivotallyconnected at their respective ends to the corresponding upper and lowerguide rods, the auxiliary upper link for each cross arm assembly beingpivotally anchored at its upper end to the mid portion of its respectiveupper guide rod, said auxiliary upper links extending downwardly indiverging relationship and being pivotally connected at their lower endsto the upper portion of diagonally opposed arms of their respectivecross arm assemblies, the auxiliary lower link for each cross armassembly being pivotally anchored at its lower end to the mid portion ofits respective lower guide rod, said auxiliary lower links extendingupwardly in diverging relationship and being pivotally connected attheir upper ends to the lower portion of diagonally opposed arms oftheir respective cross arm assemblies, bracing means extendingtransversely between the two assemblies and interconnecting the arms inone assembly with corresponding arms in the other assembly, and springmeans positioned outwardly of the cross arm assemblies extending betweenthe planar false bottom member and the transverse supports and normallyurging said false bottom member upwardly.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS722,166 Taft Mar. 3, 1903 1,272,903 Boltz July 16, 1918 1,632,270Bradley et a1. June 14, 1927 2,449,892 Gibbs Sept. 21, 1948 2,717,085Waddington Sept. 6, 1955

